A 13 part series of short stories of enthusiasm and hardcore fishing in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York.   Many days and nights spent on the water resulted in success, failure and often hilarious moments.  These are "My Fish Tails"

Eighteen Hours

Late September of 2009 I had lost a long time job with the slumping economy.  My days consisted of reading job websites, sending off resumes and writing cover letters, fishing helped kept me sane during the trying time.  The fall had started with an early sand eel run, Things began with epic results with surf fluke from Sept into October but still not many bass even with the abundance of bait. Fluke were taking teasers and small offerings in the trough and jumped clear out of the water chasing sand eels at time, something good was bound to happen as things set up for Striped Bass season.   Very much like a scheduled train, the bass began to arrive in numbers in the third week of October as the water cooled to the optimum temperatures.  Not working gave me a unique opportunity to be available for favorable conditions and much more time then usual.

  Each and every fall I look for a certain pattern as a lure fisherman with my first and foremost favorite condition being a North West wind.   The harder the NW winds the better.  The strong NW wind usually comes with is a by product of a small cool front.  Now if I ever see a cool front coming off a warmer one with high pressure and South winds then it really looks like a high percentage play. The cool front should lower the air pressure often signaling the fish to go on the feed.  In addition to all that wind is at your back increasing the casting distance and the amount of water your lure covers and the ocean flattens out making it easier to work lighter lures and get the maximum presentation action of a lure.  Now it also seems that the first day of the fall that has  a gale NW wind with a slight cool down pattern seems to be one of the best days of the season, and I mostly knew this from missing that first great day more so then often each year.  However this season with all the time in the world I was confident id catch a great day.   Around November 3^rd, a Wednesday I believe I could see the exact pattern I was looking for developing on weather forecasts over the next 2 days, a gale NW coming off a few days of South wind in a row.  I even went as far as to alert others that I lied what I saw on a fishing website with mixed reactions.  Some other angers seemed to be waiting for North East winds.   Here is that post:

 Friday

If the weather forecast holds and thats always a big IF, this looks the kinda day I look for surf fishing


High: 45 °F RealFeel®: 33 °F
Partly sunny, NW winds gusting past 40 mph and chilly

cold front with hard NW winds coming off S winds, nothing is etched in stone but that could be sweet 

  Although it seems rare, the weather did actually seem to be holding.  On Thursday the 5^th the wind was supposed to start building up at around 8 or 9pm.  I had a Job interview back in Pennsylvania on Thursday afternoon, the plan was to get an early jump and things and give it a try before dark if I could make it in time.   After the interview I rushed to the beach, this time of year the sun was setting early and it was getting dark around 5 pm.   I arrived just after 4 PM parked along the curb near the beach. Inside my truck I was quickly changing out of tie and suit into my fishing clothes, its surf fishing season and all summer season rules are basically off the way I see it.  Outside the truck  I pulled on my cold gear socks outside the truck and slipped on the waders and waterproof jacket, grabbed the bag and rod and I was ready to go.  The tide was dead low about 3:15 and when I got out of the truck I noticed the wind was dead calm, not even a breeze, so I wasn’t sure what to expect.  I made my way up the steps to the beach and it looked like a very low tide with some fisherman out on the bar just on the other side of now ankle or shin deep water.  I started to head up the beach to get to an open area of the bar and I could already see 1 or 2 fish caught as I was still walking so it looked like maybe things could be looking promising.  Other fishermen were also arriving around this time, after work possibly.

  I started out working an AVA 17 with a green tail and a white and green deceiver tied above it, as sand eels were the bait present out front now.  I worked my offerings without a touch while a few fish were picked on either side of me.  A few fish turned into a few more and still not a hit for me.  An older gentleman to my left took a double header of bass, and I finally made an adjustment and increased the speed of retrieve, about the third cast at the increased speed I finally got hit hard and set the hook , “finally”, I thought to myself as the rod bulged forward,  a few minutes later I was unhooking a 26” Striper and although not the biggest fish  I was feeling that relief of holding the first fish of the day and knowing the trip was worth it.   Quickly I was back into the water and with the speed pattern now down I was hit once again and, after a nice fight I had a fat looking bass close to 30” bass in my hand.  After I lipped the fish I could see it had taken the teaser pretty far down and I just couldn’t seem to unhook it on the bar.  I didn’t want waste too much time as bass were steadily being landed up and down the beach now but I had no choice to walk it back to the sand to try to lay it flat.  The trough was a short distance here but I decided to swim the fish back through to keep it in the water as much as possible as I planned to release it.  As I got back to the beach the strangest thing happened.  I had turned the rod at a sideways position to slide the bass onto the sand  and as I did a slight final shake suddenly caused my rod from bent sideways to bent to an underneath position which somehow caused my $200 rod to rapidly snap into 3 pieces.  It was getting close to dark, I was about 250 yards away from the truck where I did have a back up rod but fish were being caught up and down the beach, my feeling of a successful trip now felt far removed. 

   I started to make the walk back down the beach cursing at my broken rod along the way.  I got back to the truck for the backup rod but by the time I had cut the leader and switched the reel and retied it was nearly dark out.  The tide had switched for about an hour or more and the water was starting to fill in a very nice very large hole along that stretch.  As it was getting dark and the water filling in there was no need to rush back to the water but I had figured since the bite was so solid before dark things could get very good after dark.

With the new rod fully laced up now I headed back toward the hole as most fisherman were leaving but more then a couple definitely did stay for the night bite.  I made my way up to the hole which was fairly large in size 2 fisherman were working the upper corner so I started at the lower end about 25 yards below.  I could see other figures and lights still out on the sand bar to either side of the hole.  I wasn’t sure if there was enough water yet inside the hole, but no need to wade out to the bars in the dark if I could catch from land I thought.   I angled my cast toward the cut in the bar and it was quickly clear that there was enough water as a bass quickly doubled my rod forward; my feeling of trip satisfaction quickly came rushing back. When the exact same result occurred for the next cast I knew I was onto something with my 2nd bass from the sand in this large super hole.  As I fished I slowly shifted toward the middle of the hole, about every 10 mins or less me and the other 2 fisherman to my left would all hook up with bass on our bombers, needle fish or teaser at nearly the same time.  Small schools of bass were clearly entering the hole through the cut in waves.  Most of the bass I was catching were 26-29”s but fat from gorging on sand eels.  As the water came in more fisherman began to vacate the bars. 

  Before long I counted 6 total  fisherman total all along the hole now, all of us about 8 yards apart everywhere on catching bass and working together to clear out of the water or stay out until a hooked bass along side of you was hooked.  As far as I remember there wasn’t one tangle and everyone was catching bass for about 2 hours straight before it started to slow down.  I probably had close to 20 stripers including the ones before dark and seemed like the hole wasn’t going to stop producing fish, I estimated about an amazing 80-85 bass total were taken from the hole by the time it was done.  Once I got off the beach onto higher ground I could tell the wind had definitely picked up to about 10 mph NW.  I headed back to Manasquan for a late dinner and was very excited about what the morning would bring as the North West gale was building.

Eighteen Hours --  Midnight in Manasquan

  Later that night I made my way around the internet checked all the fishing websites and message boards and email as the fisherman usually do and as the night wore on I just wasn’t very tired and eventually the beach started calling out to me.  So far the beaches of Manasquan just didn’t seem to be holding any bass or bait around the smaller jetties in town.  The tide started to go back out around 10 pm and I was heading back out around 11:30 pm.  As I left the house the wind had kicked up again and had a nice stiff wind probably around 20 mph now, just what I wanted.   I worked my way in front of the boardwalk along a few finger jetties on either side and the troughs on either side without a touch. I was almost ready to give up after about a half hour but I decided to walk south toward the big jetty where I knew of a sand bar spot near by. As I walked down the beach with the glass smooth water I could see things very well.  Before I got to where I was headed I noticed a very nice new hole.  A large area of the beach was nothing but sand bars with a one deep hole dead in the middle of the beach with a large looking opening.  I knew that’s where I needed to be as I looked up and down the town beach it was mostly sand bars with one hole only along a long stretch. As I was walking up in the dark I hadn’t originally noticed it but another fisherman was there working the hole.   I said hello and asked if he minded if I share some of the real estate.  This fisherman not only didn’t mind but he alerted me that he was into fish up to 32”s pretty good.  I set up a good 15 yards to his right; I elected to start off with a 1 and ¾ oz needle fish and a red gil teaser.  As soon as I threw the needle out into the hole a bass was on it and FAST, I brought the nice fat 30” incher to the beach and unhooked it quickly.  I threw the needle back out into the darkness and again it was quickly jumped on once again, “oh yeah they are definitely here”. As me and the other angler near by threw out into the hole most of our casts were hit and either hooked or missed or fish off.  I quickly noticed this was a slightly better class of fish too that were schooled up in the hole, nearly all of the bass I was catching here were fat 28 to 31” and a few 32” inchers mixed in.

  After landing a handful of bass and missing as many and or losing a few I looked down at my needle because something caught my eye in the darkness and I noticed the finish looked different.  I flipped on my head light to see that the bass had stripped most of the paint off the lure body. 

  The other fisherman left in the middle of the hot bite and I suddenly had the midnight bite all to myself.  I switched over to a black bomber and they were on that just as much.  I probably had taken somewhere around 17 to 18 bass to 13 lbs in a little over an hour when the hits suddenly stopped just past mid tide.  I walked about another 100 yards south working around the bar and over another hole at the big jetty without a hit.  I was thinking to myself that was about it for this bite, then it started to hit me that maybe, just maybe the bass were retreating with the receding tide water at out past the cut.  I went back up to the hole and switched to an AVA 17 diamond jig with the red gil teaser still above with the intent to get a  long cast out past that cut, as soon as I cranked the jig over a bass was on the teaser.  After releasing that bass and getting another soon after long cast hit it was clear the bass were just moving out with the tide.  I added another half dozen fish at the end of the long casts before the fish finally moved out of range for good for the evening.  Walking off the beach I could feel a hard steady NW wind blowing once I got to higher ground, the two hour span it was one of the best bites I could remember with that solid size range, with only a few fish falling barely below the keeper size.  I couldn’t help but to think how tomorrow bite is was going to rock, but tomorrow was now today as it was getting past 2am.  

Eighteen Hours, Friday Morning

I tried to get right to sleep at about 2:30 am but I had landed close to 50 bass the hard plug strikes and the feel of the bent rod were replaying in mind on a loop, I just totally rocked them and I knew they would be up again at daylight,  how could I sleep like this?

When the alarm went off at 5:15 am it felt like I had been laying down only for about 5 or 10 minutes.  I sprang up splashed cool water on my face and had 2 Advil and fruit juice for breakfast, a few light stretching movements and was ready to go at it once again.  When I opened the door to leave I was greeted with noticeably cooler crisp air from the front and the winds howled through the houses, if I wasn’t fully awake yet this did it.

  I headed  south down route 35 on Friday morning back to where I had started the evening before when I parked I took a quick look at the bay and it was nothing but white caps everywhere with the hard North West wind but I knew the ocean would be the exact opposite and be glass smooth.  After I slipped on the waders and gear and headed up the street to the beach I was fully awake now and feeling good about what was over the dunes.  Just before first light there was a lot of fisherman around steps the area closest to parking, again I walked up the beach and the amount of fisherman thinned to a few every 10 to 20 yards taking up position wading on the bar.  The water was only shin deep inside the trough with the low water and the blow out tide.  I was surprised to see a few clam anglers in short boots throwing their baits out into about 2 feet of water along side where most lure guys were fishing.  I waded out to the bar just along the big hole where I had the great success on the first part of the evening before.

  The moment a bit of light cracked the November sky I saw one tiny sand eel swirl under the red skyline and then just like that up and down the beach bass were swirling in unison in relative moderation.  The rods started to bend up and down for the anglers on the sand bar and soon mine did too. I brought my bass close to the bar looked about 27”, I went to grab the leader but missed and grabbed the line just above the leader and it instantly snapped, probably due to  my laziness of not retying from midnight bite.  I quickly retied another leader while watching other anglers reeling in fish, all the while my thoughts were just hopefully this bite will sustain for a bit.  After finally getting my new leader I went into the bag for another lure.  The bass seemed to be spread out from just over the bar at our feet to others swirling a full cast out.  While looking for a lure I started to see waves of sand eels maybe by the hundred coming clear out of the water right in front of me.  I grabbed an AVA 007 with a chartreuse tail as it seemed clear I wouldn’t have to cast far and the dead calm water were perfect for presentation. I also went into my jacket pocket and took out a left glove only and slipped it onto my hand.  It appeared the bite was back on and my fingers and thumb were seriously already worn down from lipping bass.  My index finger and thumb looked and felt like I had taken 100 grit sand papers and rubbed them both to they were raw.  The inside of my thumb was also cracked and bloody too, slipping on the glove would limit further damage, I was in full blitz mode now.   As I got back into the water again I was quickly into bass.  I brought in three bass in quick time but I went to unhook the 3^rd and the hook didn’t want to come undone.  I went for my pliers and still didn’t wanna come out and the hook was starting to bend from the pressure I was putting on it.  Back to hard sand on the beach to lay this fish down to better angle on the hook.  I was still trying to unhook the bass on the beach and I could now see a lot of sand eels getting chased out of the water now into the big hole just slightly to my left, there was a considerable amount of bass popping and swirling in the still relatively shallow water inside the hole with no one on them.  The only fisherman were on either side of the hole out on the bars still.  I gave the hook one final hard tug as it came free it was nearly perfectly straightened out.  I unhooked the lure and was looking for another 17 size, but with all the bass popping and swirling in front of me I had forgot I moved remaining two 17s to my inside wader pocket.  I grabbed a brand new AVA 27 with a green tail, I figured I could just lob it into the hole and it would be just fine.  It was a brand I hadn’t used before but I had two new ones in my surf bag.  Now fishing from the sand I flipped the lure into boiling bass and sand eels flying everywhere, this was one of the dream bites we wait a long time for.   My lure was instantly hit hard and I fought a bass for a few seconds before it got off.  The next cast was nearly a repeat with a quick solid hit and the bass got off, the 3^rd hook up ended the same way as I shook my head.  I repeated this process about three more times before it finally dawns on me something wasn’t right.  I reeled in and looked at my lure and finally found out what was wrong, this brand comes with a plastic point and barb protector over the hook, I was officially out of blitz mode!    So seemingly I wasn’t even hooking these fish as much as just the pressure from the shape of the hook was keeping my rod bent for a seconds before they would get off, now feeling kind of stupid from yet another set back I quickly cut the plastic protector and got back into the action.  I landed about a half dozen more  bass in rapid fashion once I changed lures. 

However like many early morning sand eel bites the fish suddenly stopped swirling and hitting up and down the beach all at once.  It was still only just before 7 am and many anglers were walking off the beach or heading to work but it was still early and the tide was coming in and I didn’t want to quit just yet.

  After about 15 to 20 minutes I hadn’t seen much of anything but I finally did see a few birds to my left another 75 yards up the beach and I wasn’t even sure if they close enough.  I started to make the walk up the beach making some unsuccessful casts and still wasn’t sure if any fish were still around.  I finally did see some surface action, but it was a slash and a spray of Sand eels, a classic sign of a bluefish chasing bait.   I was now set up along one other fisherman in wrap around polarized sun glasses.  The slash was closest to me and the other angler pointed it out if I didn’t see it myself.  I nodded and yelled up his way “I think its blues”   A few more slashes seemed to be in range just on the far side of our casts now.  I switched lures from metal to plugs and couldn’t buy a hit.  The guy to guy who I would soon know as Ronnie finally did hook up and bring in a 6lb bluefish.  A few more bluefish slashed close in but amazingly neither of us hooked up.  Now that appeared the bite slow again I and the other fisherman exchange a few words while standing on the sand chatting while taking a break from casting.  “That was odd” I said though the blues would have been all over my plug.  We stood on beach talking for about another 10 minutes when birds start to hover over the original big hole I started fishing at 75 yards south down to our right.  We both started to walk toward the birds and we could see sand eels again being pushed at the lower end of the hole, when it turned to lots of sand eels we quicken our pace.  As we got to the hole Ronnie headed to the lower end where most of the surface action was occurring, another angler from further south was also headed toward the lower end of the hole.  The upper side of this hole tucked away and got thin inside a sand bar that formed a point, leaving a long stretched v shape to the upper side of the hole.  When I got down to this part of the hole I saw 2 or 3 birds hovering only about 5 feet off the water in this part of the hole and I saw a sand eel or two flip on the surface. As I got down to this part of the hole I decided to make a few casts rather then continue to the lower end.  I cast into the small pocked and it was clear the fish down here were willing as I got a quick hit, fighting the fish I was sure was going to be a blue but as it got close it was another striped bass.

  My hand went back into jacket and I again slipped on the left “blitz” glove.   The corner pocket of the hole seemed to be loaded with bass most likely using the contours of the bars and corner to trap sand eels.  I was again taking bass after bass in rapid fashion, I yelled down the beach to Ronnie “all bass” and pointed into the corner.  They seemed to be catching a few fish on the lower side but they didn’t appear to be nearly as stacked up.  Amazingly a second wave of fish was pushing the beaches, and again was spilling into the hole in thick numbers. We again started to steadily catch bass in good numbers with some nice keepers mixed in.  I finally did a blue but it was taken on the teaser with a 26” bass on the AVA jig below it. 

 Before the day was out I did also manage to have two other catches of bass where the leader came back without the teaser.  Bass to 32” would keep coming in waves for over 2 more hours, in lesser quantity waves of blues to 12 pounds would push through the hole also.  At times my arms were literally tired and fatigue when I was fighting large blues. 

  I had to strip off my waterproof jacket in mid blue fight because I went a good 20 minutes sweating inside it from fighting so many fish.  I took it off as fast as I could and walked back and up and the sand and threw it as high up the beach as I could.  Just minutes later I was fishing only to look back and see the water washing back to and touching my jacket, I rushed back before it got swept in and threw it even higher back, thinking how it is  funny how the presence of blitzing fish affects logical thinking.  I snapped off about 3 other times during the day and a few I could see were bass, again in the hast of blitzing fish I failed to check my line and it cost me a few lures. While so many things went right the night before so many were now going wrong mostly out of laziness from excitement yet I was still into many fish.

   By the end of the action I was down to plastic lures but the bass and blues didn’t mind.  It was nearly 11 o’clock and I had probably taken 25-30 more bass and close to 10 blues on this second wave of fish after the initial acftion, my new friend took an equal amount of fish next to me.  As we walked off the beach about another 100 yards to the cross street most anglers further down the beach were reporting fish just about every cast but all blues. Again luck shinned on me and seemingly bass favored the great hole that I had done so well in just the night before.   It had been 18 hours since I first pulled up to the same spot with high hopes for this North West blow, I probably had over 80 bass and some blue fish too.

A solid 12 lber

 After I left the beach there were two things on my mind food and new lures.  For some reason I always seemed to be stocking up on lures after the bite, rather then be prepared before the bite.  At any rate I headed to Point Pleasant and stocked up on metal and replaced what was lost and added a few more for good measure.   General tackle shop chatter indicated bites up and down the beach with a high amount of blues; it was the first day of the fall blues rushed the beaches in any solid numbers.  After lunch and the 2 and a half hours of sleep beach walking and reeling in so many fish was taking began taking a heavy toll.  My hands were dry and cracked my back and hands both ached with about every step.     I checked in on the internet briefly dropped a few emails and lay down on the couch at 2 in the afternoon with the intent of closing my eyes for a minute and promptly passed out.   I woke up after multiple rings of a cell phone around 6 pm and I think I knew exactly why, my head felt foggy, my first thoughts were no fishing tonight time to relax.   I would in fact be lying if I didn’t tell you I arrived back on a sand bar at 7:30pm; just to go take a look is what I told myself.   The word was out; I had to walk to end of the congo line of anglers which nearly went to super hole.   I took my position and I was reeling in nice 15lb bass on red gil teaser minutes later and I just laughed as its not always this easy. 

Friday Evening's first fish

   Most of the anglers in the long line out there were reporting a very strong bite from 5 to 7 pm and it slowed to a pick, I took a three fish and left in less then an hour and I went back to bed for a full night sleep with interruption this time.  The thing about going to sleep before 9 is you tend to wake up around 4 am and yes once again the stars would align for me once again and a few 16-18 lb bass would be waiting for me just before sunrise that next morning, what a Fall.